Woman attempting suicide survives train collision

A SEPTA train clipped a wo­man near Holmes­burg Sta­tion last Wed­nes­day, caus­ing her non-life-threat­en­ing in­jur­ies, ac­cord­ing to po­lice and of­fi­cials from the trans­it agency.

Po­lice have not re­leased the iden­tity of the wo­man, who is between 30 and 40 years old. The in­cid­ent oc­curred shortly be­fore 5 p.m. along SEPTA’s Trenton Re­gion­al Rail Line, just north of Holmes­burg Sta­tion, near Rhawn and Tulip streets. Po­lice be­lieve the wo­man strayed onto the tracks while con­tem­plat­ing sui­cide.

A south­bound train with about 100 pas­sen­gers and sev­er­al crew mem­bers struck her, said Kristin Gei­ger, a SEPTA spokes­wo­man. Para­med­ics ar­rived at the scene and took the wo­man to Aria Health-Tor­res­dale in stable con­di­tion.

Ini­tial news re­ports stated that the train severed the wo­man’s toes and knocked her down an em­bank­ment. Au­thor­it­ies did not con­firm that ac­count.

No in­jur­ies were re­por­ted to pas­sen­gers or crew, who were trans­ferred to an­oth­er train and trans­por­ted to their des­tin­a­tions, Gei­ger said. Ser­vice on the re­gion­al rail line was sus­pen­ded un­til 6:05 p.m. as po­lice in­vest­ig­ated the scene. ••